Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Chef Counsel...My Own Personal Cooking Revival - Part 1

As a culinary graduate, I had been finding it strange that my cooking skills have remained pretty much dormant for the last five years. Not completely dormant, I still cooked meals for myself and friends, but nothing extraordinary. Nothing that stretched my hand into unfamiliar territory.

So why this sudden change of heart? How did I end up making fritatta for one, when I could be making a Beef Wellington dinner for 10?

It was not until my recent divorce that I realized the reason I have not kept my keen interest in cooking: the person I had cared about for so many years (and who I met at CIA, ironically) stopped taking an interest in what I was making. With that difficult realization out of the way, I had reached a breaking point, and this time it was reached because of being away from the kitchen - rather than the common scenario of a chef reaching their breaking point by being in the kitchen too much.

So, how does a formally trained culinary graduate* step back into the limelight of the kitchen without overdoing it? My answer to this, and one that I am excited about: start back from the beginning. Test yourself in the kitchen, resharpen those knives, practice knife cuts...the bare bones basics. Which leads me to think, why not write about the experience? Doesn't everyone know the basic knife cuts? No. Does the grand majority of the population understand the "mother sauces?" Probably not.

We'll start out with the basics, and when the time comes for more intricacies, the less intimidating it will be. Now to go reintroduce myself with the basics; I will await the challenge!

1 comment:

  1. I know the question will come up about why I title myself with culinary graduate, instead of chef. I feel that chef is a title that is earned; not to be thrown out at every person that has graduated from culinary school. It's a title of respect and admiration, and I do not feel comfortable labeling myself (or having others refer to me) as such until the time is right. Just keeping it real, people!

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